Tableau Public was founded on the belief that it should be easier to tell stories and communicate with data. That belief was the guiding principle behind our first ever hackathon.
Hacking open data: let’s get digital
Our reason for choosing open data as a theme is that, while open data contains stories that empower the general public, spark conversations and enact change, not everyone is data-literate.
In order to understand those stories, people need help. So we asked for it.
From February 17th to 23rd, people from all over the world helped do great things with data by using their visualization skills to produce accessible stories found in daunting open data sets.
Participants chose from one of five topics; agriculture, climate, education, energy and government. They then paired together in data-duos to collaboratively visualize a subset of their team topic using the data set of their choice.
The turnout for this virtual event was outstanding. A total of 124 people (62 duos) vizzed their hearts out. Their resulting visualizations ranged in topic from global meat production, to local crime rates, to energy production in America and everything in between.